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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Interview with E.Z. Rinsky, author of Palindrome - Win a copy of the book!

INSIDE THE BOOK

Title: Palindrome

Author: E.Z. Rinsky

Publisher: Witness Impulse

Pages: 384

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Format: Ecopy/Paperback

Private Eye Frank Lamb's business is simple: He finds things. Be it the world’s hottest pepper seed in a South American dictator's safe or a pair of Italian art forgers sipping Prosecco in a Miami hotel room, he delivers the goods and collects his check, never with a smile. Work is work, and he doesn’t let it get in the way of the life he’s made for himself and his ten-year-old daughter, Sadie.

But when a staggeringly beautiful woman offers him a small fortune to find a cassette tape, curiosity gets the better of him. It contains, she explains, a recording her sister’s kidnapper made of her last three minutes on Earth. She conveniently fails to mention the unsettling effects the tape is rumored to have on listeners.

Frank takes the case, and enlists the help of reclusive tracker Courtney Lavagnino to pick up a trail that's been cold for five years. As their search leads them through a horrifying labyrinth of murder and madness, it becomes clear they're chasing much more than a memento.

THE INTERVIEW

How
has your upbringing influenced your writing?

My psychiatrist used to ask me the same thing.
Kidding. Suffice to say a lot of my sensibilities are thanks to my two
brilliant, pretty hilarious parents. Also, that some readers may recognize
subtle Jewish motifs in Palindrome.

What
inspires you to write and why?

I
never know how to answer this question. I think of writing the same way I think
about eating. If I sat around waiting to be inspired to eat, we wouldn’t
be having this talk. I just wake up every morning and write, inspired or not.

What
genre are you most comfortable writing?

So
Palindrome, which is my first published book, is a mystery. And I’m
working on the sequel now which—*spoiler
alert* —will also
be a mystery. But writing mystery books is very arduous in a way other books
aren’t. Everything has to be so,
so tight. Sometimes it feels like you’re
doing a jigsaw puzzle that you designed when you were super drunk, but now you
don’t know if the pieces will
actually end up fitting together in the end. Pretty soon I’d
like to write something that doesn’t
make me feel like Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.

What
are you most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?

I
almost took a path in life that would have made me very unhappy. Just a few
months before finishing a masters in econ, I was positive I wanted to sign up
for the Wall Street grind. I distinctly recall reading a book called ‘In
the House of Money’at one
point. I’m pretty
proud that I avoided that path. It was a close call.

What
do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in
general?

Well
for one thing you have to be compulsively, obsessively organized, and this is
challenging for me because I’m
actually a really disorganized person in almost every other facet of my life.
Maybe even more challenging is how many things you have to hold in your head at
one time. The amount of moving pieces in a 350 page book is pretty astounding.

What
inspired you to write your first book?

Rent.

Do
you intend to make writing a career?

I
do. But at one point I intended to make playing point guard for the Denver
Nuggets a career, so we’ll
see.

Have
you developed a specific writing style?

I
hope so? That’s a tough
question. I strive to make whatever I’m
writing fun and easy to read, even if the content is dark or serious. I hope I’ve
succeeded.

What is your
greatest strength as a writer?

I think my
imagination. People always ask me how I come up with the crazy stuff I write. I
really don’t have a
good answer for them.

What
is your favorite quote, by whom, and why?

I
once asked a friend’s
great grandmother—she was 95
at the time—if she had
any words of wisdom for me. She looks me dead in the eye and goes ‘play
the field.’I think
that’s the funniest thing I’ve
ever heard.

MEET THE AUTHOR

E.Z. Rinsky has worked as a statistics professor, copywriter and--for one misguided year--a street musician. He currently lives in Tel Aviv. More at ezrinsky.com

Giveaway

Witness Impulse is giving away 3 print copies of the book!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.

Three winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive a print copy of Palindrome